© U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceIt’s already a challenging start to the day when I watch the news and hear the latest details of our vapid presidential politics, the tragic flooding in Louisiana, and a literally life-shaking earthquake in Italy. But then, what scrolls across the bottom of the screen? The added horror that a pack of 11 wolves in Washington State has received a death sentence as a result of their predation on livestock.[teaserbreak]
Six adults and five pups to be killed. Challenging. Sad. Confusing. Maddening.
We humans find so many ways to kill animals, don’t we? We capture them and torture them; we trap them and shoot them; we slice their throats and pierce them with arrows; and we kill them after we’ve experimented on them long enough. We humans find so many excuses for why we kill animals, don’t we? There are too many of them; they are here for our benefit; it’s sporting; it makes us money; we need to eat; we need to find cures for what ails us; and, well, they are just in our way.
It would be too easy to simply say that we should never blame predatory animals for killing prey because they are hard-wired to do so. Too easy to say that we should never kill animals for predating on livestock because it is we who encroach on their habitat. Too easy to say that we have to focus on non-lethal options and not resort to shooting from helicopters. We simply have to think harder about how to co-exist with wildlife.
It’s all true.
And, beyond that, it happens everywhere. This is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Elephants trample crops in Africa. One of the reasons the ivory trade was reopened in 1997 was the carefully manufactured and presented images of deprived African children whose family farms were allegedly trodden upon by elephants. Tigers kill humans in the dense wooded havens between human communities and protected forest areas in India, especially when villagers venture into these buffer zones to collect firewood. Lions kill livestock in Kenya, resulting in gruesome retaliatory poisoning of Africa’s majestic big cats.
So, we have an ever-expanding human population that rapaciously yearns for more and more habitat, and devours as much of the natural world as we can and as we “need”—and then we react with shock and anger when there is conflict.
The lion kills the cow in Africa because the lion is occupying 8% of its historic range on the continent. The lion kills the cow because bushmeat hunters continue to take the lion’s prey animals. The lion kills the cow because we keep moving closer and closer into the lion’s habitat, exposing ourselves to—well, lions!
Humans, however, kill because we can. It’s convenient.
There is an estimated population of only 90 wolves in 19 packs in Washington State, up from just two confirmed packs in 2008. This mirrors the grey wolf’s remarkable recovery in large swaths of its historic range since it was listed as an endangered species in 1978. But, the question needs to be asked: do we want wolves to completely recover in America after the crippling, deadly, historic onslaught nearly drove them to extinction? If so, removing 12% of Washington’s population will not get us there. This is, without a doubt, a complex and challenging issue—but I admit I seriously wrestle with the concept that we bring animals back from the brink of extinction only to have conflict that results in their wholesale slaughter.
Lethal slaughter, especially for the pups, is insane to me. Are there really no alternatives? Stronger cattle protection? Enhanced mitigation? Live-capture the pups and re-home them to a sanctuary that can provide them lifetime care in a humane setting? It’s especially hard for me to think about the slaughter of wolves, who are in many ways so similar to our companion canines—yet still so wild.
I go around and around in my head of the “why”s of killing, and it’s ironic. We have ranching to raise cattle to slaughter for the human palate; wild wolves kill a handful of these cows because they are held in areas near wolf habitat; and we kill the wolves. So, the cows lose and the wolves lose. It’s neither fair nor sensible. It’s certainly not necessary.
I am not naive in all of this. From recent news reports, it seems that measures have been put in place to mitigate this deadly conflict. Still, I keep coming back to this concept of raising cattle near wolves, and then multiple deaths inevitably ensue. There has to be a better way.
One rancher’s organization recently referred to this wolf pack as “chronic killers” of livestock and wants them removed. Really? It seems to me that humans are the chronic killers of livestock… and of wildlife, too.
It’s time for a wholesale re-evaluation of the way we relate to wild animals in this country, the way we exploit animals for human indulgence, and the protection we give to all animals.
It’s time to pursue chronic compassion, not chronic killing.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Adam